Google Ads bug stalls spending for New Customer Acquisition

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How to expand from paid social into Google Ads

A confirmed bug in Google Ads caused New Customer Acquisition (NCA) campaigns to stop spending budgets starting May 15. The issue has affected advertisers relying solely on this bidding strategy to reach new customers.

The details:

  • Google acknowledged the problem in an email shared by Google Ads consultant Benoit Legendre.
  • “We are aware of an issue where the campaigns running on New Customer Acquisition only, have stopped spending starting May 15th,” Google said.
  • The company added that its engineering team is actively working on a fix, but initially provided no specific timeline.

Why we care. Advertisers using NCA-only bidding have seen campaign performance stall for days, potentially disrupting customer acquisition goals and monthly spend pacing. Google Ads is a critical advertising platform. Issues like this can have wide-reaching financial and strategic implications.

The workaround. While the fix was pending, Google advised advertisers to temporarily switch bidding from “New Customer Acquisition only” to “New and existing customers.” This change can resume campaign delivery until the issue is resolved.

The update. As of 11:45am ET on May 19, Google’s Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin confirmed that the engineering team “fully mitigated the issue.” NCA campaign performance should now begin returning to normal.

First seen. The bug was first brought to broader attention via Legendre’s LinkedIn post, spotted by PPC News Feed and shared by Hana Kobzová.